FIT CITY

Gyrokinesis: It's all about the twist

Dancer developed style of exercise that's based on full range of spinal motion.

By Pamela LeBlanc
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Monday, May 18, 2009

One of my swim buddies cornered me after practice recently to extol the virtues of Gyrokinesis, which, she vowed, could help me shoot through the water like a torpedo.

The yoga-esque form of exercise, popular among the Hollywood "it" crowd, aims to balance the body and elongate the spine. She says a Gyrokinesis session after a grueling workout in the pool makes her feel like a happy, flexible noodle. Golfers, triathletes and runners also swear by it.

"I swim so much better," Mary Beth Murphy told me. "You can train longer and harder because you're not wearing out. And I breathe better because I can open more through the chest."

Because my back, neck and shoulders sometimes feel as if they've been welded into a permanent hunch after a tough swim, I agreed to tag along for a class.

A handful of Austin studios offer gyro classes. We've chosen Core Therapy & Pilates, where instructor Vanessa Bishop, 33, will lead us through an hourlong class.

But first, some history. Juliu Horvath, a Hungarian ballet dancer whose career was ended by an Achilles tendon injury, developed what he called Yoga for Dancers while living on St. Thomas in the 1970s. That evolved into Gyrokinesis, done on mats or stools, and the accompanying Gyrotonic form of exercise, done on special, torturous-looking machines. The pulley tower, for example, looks a little like a Pilates reformer crossed with a cable row machine — a wooden rack to lie on with cabled handles to grab.

How exactly does it differ from, say, Pilates?

"Pilates is moving on land; gyro is moving in water," Bishop says. In Gyrokinesis and Gyrotonic, you work in 360 degrees. It involves lots of rotating and stretching. It incorporates elements of yoga, ballet and gymnastics. "Pilates is linear; gyro is twisting."

To me, it feels like swimming on land.

Three students — Murphy, Kristi Combs and I — settle in on small stools placed in a circle. Bishop takes a seat, too, and guides us in alternately arching and curving our backs to warm up.

"It's all about spine movement," Bishop says. We stretch and flex, bend and twist as she leads us through a series of movements that mimic stroking a canoe paddle and swimming freestyle while seated, on land.

"I want you to pretend there's a marble in your belly," Bishop says, encouraging us to make spiraling motions with our trunks. "You should feel that really opening up the lower part of your back. Now side bend to the right, arch, and side bend to the left."

Next, we push back our stools and do more movements while standing, then lying on the ground. We pose like Vargas pin-up girls one moment, then round our backs like Halloween cats the next. We undulate, we ripple like wind-swept waters. Or try to, anyway. We're nudging our spines to move in a full range of motion, Bishop says.

My knees and back crackle and pop like bubble wrap. Bishop says gyro is safe for just about anybody because it is less strenuous on joints than other forms of exercise. It eases back pain because it creates space between vertebrae through stretching. Horvath, the creator, even teaches students who have scoliosis or use wheelchairs.

By the time class ends, I've worked up a light sweat. I am a washrag, and Bishop has wrung me out.

Madonna and Tiger Woods reportedly do Gyrokinesis, and I can see the appeal. Stephen Jones, a 43-year-old investment manager who comes to Core Therapy & Pilates four times a week, says it has improved his golf game.

"Golf is all about rotation and the ability to twist your body back and forward. This helps me twist further," Jones says. "I have a very stiff back and have found this is the only thing that keeps it loose and limber."

Stephen Dunn, the certified physical therapist who opened this studio in 2005 with his wife, Cheryl, says he uses Gyrokinesis with his patients to improve functional movement like walking and household chores. Some of the moves are easily done at home or while sitting at a desk, another plus.

"For me, it's teaching people how to sit up at their desk," he says. "It teaches people to hold their posture correctly. And you learn mind body awareness you don't get from traditional gym work."

I want to learn more about how it can help my swimming, so we move over to the Gyrotonic machines. (You should master the mat and stool work before advancing to the machines.) Donna Place, a master Gyrokinesis trainer from Long Beach, Calif., who is in Austin to certify instructors to teach on the equipment, demonstrates some moves on the pulley tower. Gyrotonic machines have a weight and pulley system that provides equal resistance throughout an exercise. Pilates machines use springs, and the resistance they provide varies depending on how far you pull the springs.

"You're doing a duet with the machine," Place says. "You pull, the machine resists, then the machine pulls and you resist. It's not about lifting the weight — it's about creating a buoyant atmosphere."

She sprawls on her back, feet attached to the pulley system, and kicks like Michael Phelps.

"It's the ability of the whole body to pulse like a jellyfish," she says. "And you don't even have to get into a swimsuit."

We move to the jumping/stretching machine, which looks like the parallel bars used in gymnastics with the addition of a moveable seat. There's even an attachment that rotates like a propeller.

Instructor Dixon Mena is squeezing in a workout. He spins, twirls and extends his limbs in a flowing motion. Clearly he's getting a solid abdominal workout, something that would no doubt help my swim stroke. Swimmers need to lengthen their bodies when they swim, as opposed to compressing their lower backs, Cheryl Dunn tells me.

"You want a long arch rather than a lower back stretch," she says.

Lots to think about; lots to work on.

Clearly, though, it works for the jellyfish. Maybe it'll work for me.

pleblanc@statesman.com; 445-3994

Learn more or try a class

For more information about Gyrokinesis and Gyrotonic, go to www.gyrotonic.com. Group Gyrokinesis classes are $20, and private Gyrotonic sessions start at $55 at Core Therapy & Pilates. For more information, go to www.therapyandpilates.com.